Running Boston Marathon for Cancer Research

A few weeks ago, I started a new training videoblog. Beyond moving all running-specific chatter away from my main personal site, I had another specific purpose in mind, which I didn't reveal at the time because my plan required acceptance of an application I'd filed on that same day. I received that acceptance last week, and I'm excited to share the news with my followers here, in the hopes that you'll also follow and support me over there.

First, a little background. Training for and running the San Francisco Marathon this year was incredibly important and rewarding for me, and the experience made me want to use a similar opportunity to do something even more important for others. I want to take on a challenge much bigger than anything I could accomplish solely for myself.

As you may remember, Kristina has participated in the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge twice, and each time she inspired me by her commitment, passion, and success. Her athletic accomplishments inspired me to run San Francisco, and now that she’s not applying for DMFC herself this year, her charitable achievements have inspired me to carry the torch that she started. I have been truly moved by her work for DFMC, which has highlighted the research her contributions have funded. It’s an effort I want to be a part of myself.

So, I was thrilled and honored to be selected among many applicants to run the Boston Marathon in April to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Though I must raise at least $3,250 to support research that will help eradicate cancer, my personal goal of $6,000 is significantly more ambitious.

The DFMC raises funds for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The DFMC directs 100% of funds raised to the Barr Program, which enables gifted young scientists at the leading edge of discovery to achieve better cure rates and to enhance patients' quality of life. I hope you will support my challenge by giving a gift to my run and, in doing so, help bring an end to the challenge of cancer.

For more details on why I'm running for DFMC, check out my About page and consider following me on my training blog as it also begins to document my fundraising efforts for this cause that's so much bigger than my own humble performance. Thanks in advance for any donation you're able to make, and I look forward to seeing you around there soon (or, actually, you seeing me around there, I suppose). I truly appreciate your support.

Walking Westford - all dead ends

Well let's start with the MOST important aspect of the walk, which is not where we walked but the fact that I could actually SEE MY SHADOW! WHOOHOOOOOOO! The sun came out! Oh were we psyched!

OK, now down to the business of the walk. We started off on Baldwin Dr., which is off Main St. near the Chelmsford line. Nice neighborhood, very late 1980's, HUGE houses, but quite varied, with vast porches (which I greatly envy), and tons of well thought out and executed landscaping. Love the long collection of trees that lines the road.

All of the lollipop roads that come off it are not actually roads but shared driveways with rather annoying "Private Property, stay away, we don't want your kind here" signs. Fine with us, less road to walk!

So Baldwin was really short, especially given the lack of tributaries. So we got in the car and hopped over to Buckboard Dr. This had a classic Hicks feel to it, lots of farm houses, horse related names, etc. It's a really big neighborhood actually with over 50 houses. They had this very cool garden area with granite benches. It looked like it was a community spot, very well maintained, trimmed bushes. See pic below. MUCH more inviting than the road signs over at Baldwin.

This was a pretty short walking day since my mom had 4th of July prep to do and I had a brick oven to work on. Never the less, the peanut gallery were chirping about how sore their legs were, how tired they were, are we nearly done yet, etc. I told them if this is how they handled a flat, quiet walk in their home town, then Mt. Monadnock was really going to give them a treat when we climb it later in the year. Anyone want to join us? Oh, come on! It'll be fun!

Roads walked: Baldwin Rd., Buckboard Dr., Stonebolt Way (love that name!), Carriage Way, Haywagon Circle.





CommunityWalk Map - Walking Westford

Walking Westford - Graniteville

Like everything else this month of June 2009, Walking Westford has been suffering from too much rain. It's also suffering a bit from the brick oven I am working on, which vies for my incredible lack of time. But we did manage to get a walk in, and the sun almost came out!

Now that school is out we have all three of my daughters in tow, so we are back to a chorus of "I'm hungry, can I have a snack, I'm tired, are we almost done yet". It's really quite musically and I highly encourage all of you to collect a few young friends and give it a try. No, really.

So we walked Graniteville, probably the most tightly packed and congested section of Westford. It's really quite beautiful. Most of the houses are unique in structure and people do a very nice job of caring for their small patches of land. My first boyfriend ever, Mark Malek, grew up there. Sixth grade. Let's see, that's about, maybe 12 lifetimes ago. Currently his old house is for sale we noticed. Our Dads worked together at Hewlett-Packard back in the day. He was a really nice kid. I wonder where he's gone off to.

We saw the Sargent School which neither my mother nor I ever knew where it was located. It's run down looking now. Appears as though it has housing in it... elderly? Anyone know? There were a few other buildings around it that seemed like they were the same thing only newer.

There is a quaint little park between the Methodist Church and the Mill Pond, peaceful though buggy (another gift of so many wet, raining, miserable, overcast, lack-of-sun, where-the-heck-is-summer days). We saw a HUGE blue heron (I think it was blue, or was it grey?) at the base of the water-fall on Broadway. He just stood there, apparently waiting for a school of fish to come flopping down the falls. He eventually looked up at us, as if to say, "Bugger off will you, I am busy here."

There was also the obligatory Westford Poison Ivy collection along the sides of Broadway. That stuff is insidious. It was growing out of of the pavement right in front of the old mill. Evil.

Roads walked: First St., Second St., Third St., Fourth St., Broadway St., School Lane, Church St., Cross St.


CommunityWalk Map - Walking Westford

Cruise Night Returns to Kimball Farm

Last night, Cruise Night returned to Kimball Farm, and my boy and the boy in me were there to welcome it back (we went a couple times last summer). I paid my $3.00 and he got in free (as does anyone under age 12).

After we ate our burger, hot dog, chips, and watermelon (it says a lot that my son wanted to wait for his ice cream), we went straight out into the field of classic, antique, or otherwise unique vehicles. Amazing what a few muscle cars will do for a kid's attitude on a pleasant summer evening.



Here's just a sampling of a few of our favorites:



When we'd been around the field enough to get a good look at each car, motorcycle, or truck more than once, we finally got around to indulging ourselves at the ice cream sundae bar and were ready to fully appreciate the live band that had served as the evening's soundtrack. Last night's lineup featured The Usual Suspects, who seemed to be appreciated by all, especially the young ones:



Weather permitting, the cars, music, food, and fun will cruise on into Kimball's every Thursday night at 5:00 until September 3. If you're into any of those things, I highly recommend you find a date or more in that window that works for you and your family to attend.

Asphalt Plant Coming to Groton Road?

According to an article in yesterday's Westford Eagle,* Newport Materials LLC is seeking to construct a four-acre manufacturing facility on Route 40 (adjacent to Fletcher Granite, across the street from Domino's Pizza and Ace Hardware) that would produce 300-400 tons of asphalt every hour (including both daytime hours and operations at night). Residents are obviously concerned about the effect of the plant on noise, environment (emissions), and traffic. A post on the Westford Forum indicates that the plant "would be in a water resource protection overlay district."

The Lowell Sun reports that close to 50 residents of Westford and Chelmsford showed up at the Board of Health meeting at Westford Academy on May 18, then moved on to meet another group that was already waiting at the Planning Board meeting at the Millennium School to protest the proposal in a public hearing:

While the Planning Board's role in evaluating the project is clear, the Board of Health is in a different position. Members of that board said they had never been confronted with an issue like this and are trying to determine exactly what authority they have.

In the absence of certainty about their role, Health Board members urged those in attendance to make their concerns known to every appropriate board in town, starting with the Planning Board. Board member Joanne Martel suggested that they look at the successful effort in the 1990s to block a Wal-Mart from opening in town as a model for how to proceed.

Westford resident Peter Severance spoke before the Board of Health and drew on his experience at the Harvard School of Public Health. He said that one thing "had crystallized for him" regarding all the development in Westford. "No one has really looked hard at air pollution -- maybe it's time we did."

The hearing, to determine whether to grant site-plan approval and issue a special permit, will continue on Monday, June 8, at 9:15 p.m.

A reply posted on the Westford Forum notes that Alisa Nakashian-Holsberg has set up an email list to keep interested residents informed of meetings, events, and news on this issue. Sign up at route40cleanaircoalition@gmail.com to receive updates.

UPDATE

The Westford Eagle has set up an online poll for this issue:

POLL: Do you support a proposal for an asphalt manufacturing facility? - Westford, MA - Westford Eagle

UPDATE 2

It's very short notice, but I just received an email from Matt Hagerty, a representative from Newport Materials, inviting me and any interested parties to attend an "Information Meeting" tomorrow night, June 2, at 6 p.m. at Nabnasset Country Club, 47 Oak Hill Rd., in Westford. RSVP by emailing matt@newportmaterials.com or calling (978) 392-1511.

UPDATE 3

Because it's important to share all sides of the issue (disclaimer: I haven't researched the claims of either side myself), I'm posting this Fact Sheet, distributed by the Route 40 Clean Air Coalition, which is hosting a community organization meeting on Monday, June 15 (click on Fact Sheet for larger image and details):



* A similar article, with most of the same content but focusing on the impact on nearby Chelmsford also ran in the Chelmsford Independent.

Walking Westford - Jean and Gary's neighborhood

OK... not too bad - only a 2 week lag since the last post. Today we walked Jean and Gary's neighborhood, otherwise known as Lakeside Terrace and it's tributaries. I recall when this was built, how vast and empty it seemed... wide open space with houses sticking up like bumps. But now, a dozen years later, it's really very pretty, lots of ornamental trees grown to size. There is a nice selection of home styles, some of the them were gorgeous and all of them are huge.

I didn't actually know this was Jean and Gary's neighborhood until we passed Jean on her way home, right in front of her house. She stopped, and said, "Hey I know you guys!". We all take Power classes together at Westford Racquet and Fitness. Jean's sister Joanne teaches the class and she ROCKS! Love her! I highly recommend you try out the hour of power, even once or twice a week, beating the crap out of your muscles and wondering just how many days of soreness you might face. It's GREAT!

Anyhow, I digress. We all had our Walking Westford shirts on today - Granny, me (mom), and Lily - three generations! The weather looked iffy, but it held out really nice. We parked one car on Blue Heron Drive and one at the other end of Lakeside Terrace. It was a fairly quite walk. It always surprises me how dead quiet neighborhoods can be in the middle of the day. We only saw a few cars and two other walkers.

There are some seriously nice views of Nab Lake from that neighborhood, especially from Pond View Circle and from the houses high up on Eagle's Nest and Shipley Circle. There was a house on the corner of Lakeside and Gooseneck with fabulous landscaping - stonework , pergola, shrubs, it was beautiful. Nice work folks!

Roads we walked: Lakeside Terr, Shipley Cir, Blue Heron Dr, Eages Nest Rd, Fawn Ln, Pond VIew Cir, Jack Rabbit Ln, Grassy Ln, Loon Way, Birchwood Dr.

wow that's a long list! It was ~3.7 miles with the backtracking. And Lily walked a good bit of it too! Which is great, because to be honest, pushing that stroller with 40 lbs in it up those hills, was a chore!




CommunityWalk Map - Walking Westford

Walking Westford - back on the road!

Yes! We're baaaaack! Apparently some of you have missed the Walking Westford blog, so to you (few) I apologize humbly for the vast delay in posts and promise to make this walking season generously more fruitful than the last. With a little luck, who knows, maybe we'll finish it this year! Still a bit of a pipe dream, but stranger things have happened (have you seen this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY ).

Today was the first truly gorgeous, warm day of 2009 and since I was a slug and didn't make it to my 5:45 am Power Class (sorry Tara, without your inspiration it's not as enticing!), we decided to kick off the 2009 Walking Westford season. So Mom, Lily and I headed first for St. Catherines to leave a car, and then on to the Harde's house as they generously agreed to allow us to park the other one there.

We started the walk off with a bang as Mom took a header off the sidewalk right into the west-bound lane of Main St. She was merely scraped, no real harm (thanks to those Power classes!), and a very nice lady pulled over to ask if she was ok and if we needed a ride anywhere. We thanked her and told her we were walking Westford, though so far, not very successfully.

And off we went... down Graniteville Rd - which SOME of you might know was recently mentioned MORE THAN ONCE on Fringe, a really good new show on Fox Network. Seriously, it went something like "Agent Duhnam's vehicle was found on Graniteville Rd in Westford." HAHHAH! SO COOL! In another episode Agent Dunham pointed to a map of Westford talking about some place called Little Hill Field (which is fictional) but SHE POINTED TO MY HOUSE! NO JOKE! You can watch it on fox.com, and you darn-well should. It's not often that Westford is mentioned in a nationally broadcast TV show!

anyhow.... We picked up Randolph Circle, getting a spectacular view of the back of the old Abbott estate... man that's a fantastic house and property. From here we headed down the hill and caught Patriot Lane, where a kid called Eric Anderson used to live - Hi Eric. We passed the Blanchard Farms condos (with all their friendly "PRIVATE PROPERTY DO NOT ENTER NO TRESPASSING GO AWAY WE WONT SHARE OUR ROADS WITH YOU LOT!" signs... nice.

We found a utility knife on the Rd. near the intersection of Graniteville and Cold Spring. I was going to chuck it but Mom said it was worth $15 and in perfectly good shape, which it was. So if you can prove it's yours my mom has it.

When we reached Graniteville village area, we turned left on Bridge St... there are kind of scary looking old foundry type buildings back, lots of asbestos, rust... ugly... but well hidden and right next to the tracks, so no big loss I guess.

We took Bridge to North Main St and picked up Hillside on the way back to the church. It's aptly named... SERIOUS hill... older neighborhood. We met a very nice gentleman who explained his lawn to us. You see, it looked entirely and uniformly dead... a smooth tan color, very soft in appearance. We asked him what happened to his lawn and he said, nothing it was fine and would green up by mid-June or so. He showed it to us more closely and explained that it was some strange type of grass that he knew not the name of, apparently his wife does though she wasn't there so we couldn't ask her. It's kind of a weed really but it's soft and thickly carpeted, appears like a fine lawn. He said it spreads and take over everything but no weeds grow in it. He doesn't use any fertilizer or herbicides on it, but he does have to trim it back a few times a year or it will overtake the walkways. Anyone have any ideas on what it is? We plan to go back and check out in June when its green.

Then it was back to St. Catherines to get the car. All in all a very nice walk. Felt good to be out there again. We will try to pick up speed on the walks as the weather continues to improve.

Hope someone out there reads this!

Roads walked: Graniteville Rd, Randolph Circle, Patriot Lane, Hillside Avenue, and a bit of North Main St.



CommunityWalk Map - Walking Westford